The government on Thursday banned shipments of rice harvested in the Onami district in the city of Fukushima after one farm's product registered levels of radioactive cesium above the provisional limit.

It is the first ban on rice shipments since the devastating nuclear crisis was triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said the government instructed Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato to impose the ban, while also requesting the prefecture to conduct further tests on rice harvested in Onami.